“They have adopted the strategy of creating obstacle beds around where they are working to make it difficult to chase them and make arrests but we used different approaches to breach those obstacles to apprehend them.”

Colonel Amoah urged residents to be on high alert on informing authorities about the illegal undertaking of foreign nationals. He also advised informants to remain tight-lipped when they make complaints to security service and remain under the radar to save themselves from impending harm by suspects.

In similar operations, the FOBs immobilised a changfan machine and two sanny excavators at Anyinam along the Brim River, Eastern Region and Asaase Bombesea in the Obuasi East District of the Ashanti Region.

Others include the arrest of eighteen suspected illegal miners; fourteen Ghanaians and four Chinese nationals in the Western and Ashanti Regions on Monday, July 9.

Galamsey ban

The government, in March 2017 placed a ban on illegal mining and small-scale mining activities following a strong wave of media campaign on the menace that has left many water bodies polluted and farmlands destroyed.

The decision has over the period attracted a backlash from small-scale miners who insist that they had licences and operated within the legal environmental requirements and that their rights had been trampled upon.

The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has however assured that within a short period, his government will put out a statement setting out a comprehensive roadmap, including the lifting of the ban on small-scale mining, to deal with, on a permanent basis, the grave threat of galamsey to the present and future health of Ghana.

The government’s grand plan towards ending illegal mining includes the establishment of district mining committees in mining areas across the country, the deployment of Operation Vanguard, fitting tracking devices in excavators used in mining districts, and the use of drone technology, among others.

Currently, over 200 drones have been procured to assist its fight against illegal mining across the country. The machines will be used to take live images in districts where the practice is rampant.